Small Naked Portrait

This painting is small yet has no less impact than far larger works by the artist.

Its decisive brushwork and impasto is particularly effective when concentrated on so small a compass. The nude figure by artificial light has long been Freud's chief subject. In painting the naked, he concentrates on the vulnerability of this condition, and the truth, with what is often mistaken for cruelty. The high viewpoint, also associated with Freud's art, creates a special tension and disconcerts us because of the spacial uncertainty it induces, while the apparent dislocation of the figure forces us to explore and to recognise what we see.

Provenance

Estate of the artist; The Lady Elliot, London; James Kirkman & Anthony d'Offay; David Kelley, Worcs; James Kirkman.

Nominally inspired by Lucretius' De rerum natura, Piero di Cosimo's The Forest Fire takes its scientific subject and embellishes it with fantastical creatures from the artist's imagination: Bulls, bears, lions and deer-like creatures with human faces all flee wearily from a fire.

Rubens' portrait of Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel dates from about 1629. The Earl was a great collector, and Rubens had painted the earl's wife a few years earlier on a visit to Antwerp. This drawing in pen and ink with a chalk base is unusually informal, reflecting perhaps the comfortable relationship between artist and patron.